New to Pokemon battling - seeking advice (Long post)

First off, I sincerely apologize if this is in the wrong spot. While searching through the forum this was the only forum I could see which would relate to HeartGold, as everything else seems to be for Black & White.

First off, I'd like to introduce myself. I've gotten back into Pokemon after not playing it since Blue & Gold and I've been thoroughly enjoying myself, it's good to see all the old Pokemon back in a newer generation game and a familiar story/scenery for me to get back in to (The primary reason I didn't pick up Black or White)

However, as I've been building my team I've been checking out Smogon for quite some time, learning about natures, EV training and IV's and I believed I had made myself a reasonably good team (Or so I thought...?) It seemed to have a nice balance of attacks and types and I was also able to stick to Pokemon I knew and loved from back in the original Gold version.

However, reading through the website a lot more I've been doubting my selection and I've been trying to improve on that, most notable is that my team has neither Stealth Rock or Rapid Spin (I'm not sure if a team if meant to have both or just one or both?) so I've been leaning toward that I might need to make use of the weather trio from Ruby and Sapphire (Which Id have no problem with, as I'm familiar with them) and/or perhaps weaving a Starmie into my team.

Anyway, this is my team so far. I know some/a lot of you may look at it and laugh, but please keep in mind I haven't played since early 2000's and I'm just looking for any help possible :)

The Raikou I have I recieved from a friend of mine who has moved on to Black & White (Hence the Aura Sphere)

While I think the types and ability sets have a wide coverage, I feel that they just don't sync well with everyone else. I think if I were to add a Groudon w/ Stealth Rock and a Specs Kyogre to add more power, I'd have to drop (Maybe?) Tyranitar/Ho-Oh for Groudon, Gyarados for Kyogre, switch Mewtwo's Thunderbolt for Grass Knot and probably drop Raikou for something else completely. And I also think that if I have Kyogre I won't be able to have a Starmie should I need one... I'm just so awfully confused on what I should do.

Also as silly as it might sound to you guys, I'd very much like to stick with Generation I/II Pokemon in my team, and if anything past that it'd be the weather trio. I'm sorry that my post was so long, but I'd like to try and get this figured out as soon as I can, as I'm still raising my team (They're all around level 75) and I feel if I were to get some of them to level 100, and then drop them from my team to raise another one, it'd feel like a big waste.

Thank you to anyone who may be able to help me on the matter, I really really appreciate it! :)

You seem to know little about tiers, the sets are good but some pokemon just do not belong there (read: Gyarados). Also, most people have moved on to B/W already and if you don't have a game, try a simulator. Specifically, THE simulator otherwise known as Pokemon Online.

Thanks very much for your response :)
I didn't see that section, so my apologies. I know how people can find it frustrating to find threads in wrong sections, but I'll direct any inquiries to that section. I'm confused about the Gyarados comment, but that'd be expected from a newbie :D I was a bit unsure with him from the beginning, but we'll see how it goes.

Basically, tiers are a system by which certain mons are banned to give the others a chance to shine. In the Uber tier, nothing is banned. In the OU tier, some things are banned. If OU and lower tiers didn't exist, many many pokemon would never be used.

You should pick either OU or Uber for now. If you pick Uber, you are using a significantly underpowered team, many of the uber threats like Rayquaza and Kyogre will bowl you over. If you pick OU, you cannot use Ho-oh and Mewtwo.

Stealth Rock is pretty good for any team. Having it up will turn a lot of 2 hit knock outs into one hit knock outs, and 3HKOs into 2HKOs. You can run a team successfully without stealth rock, but it tends to be a good idea.

Rapid spin matters a lot based on your team. The more pokemon you have weak to rock attacks, the more useful rapid spin will be for you. I would say that if you plan on playing ubers and keep Ho-oh, then a rapid spin user is almost mandatory.

Your gyarados doesn't make any sense man. Dragon dance is useless when you have a choice band. Choice band gyarados is not used much because it is weak to stealth rock. Pokemon with choice items tend to switch a lot, and so the stealth rock weakness matters more. That's not to say that CBgyara isn't good... just something to consider.

Also, you don't seem to have any EVs or natures listed? You seem to be getting sets from somewhere, but just in case you can check smogon's analysis dex to see good, standard sets for pokemon if you're unsure of what to do

Basically, tiers are a system by which certain mons are banned to give the others a chance to shine. In the Uber tier, nothing is banned. In the OU tier, some things are banned. If OU and lower tiers didn't exist, many many pokemon would never be used.

You should pick either OU or Uber for now. If you pick Uber, you are using a significantly underpowered team, many of the uber threats like Rayquaza and Kyogre will bowl you over. If you pick OU, you cannot use Ho-oh and Mewtwo.

Stealth Rock is pretty good for any team. Having it up will turn a lot of 2 hit knock outs into one hit knock outs, and 3HKOs into 2HKOs. You can run a team successfully without stealth rock, but it tends to be a good idea.

Rapid spin matters a lot based on your team. The more pokemon you have weak to rock attacks, the more useful rapid spin will be for you. I would say that if you plan on playing ubers and keep Ho-oh, then a rapid spin user is almost mandatory.

Your gyarados doesn't make any sense man. Dragon dance is useless when you have a choice band. Choice band gyarados is not used much because it is weak to stealth rock. Pokemon with choice items tend to switch a lot, and so the stealth rock weakness matters more. That's not to say that CBgyara isn't good... just something to consider.

Also, you don't seem to have any EVs or natures listed? You seem to be getting sets from somewhere, but just in case you can check smogon's analysis dex to see good, standard sets for pokemon if you're unsure of what to do

Sorry if this wasn't cogent, I'm very tired and rambling

Click to expand...

Thanks very much for your response :)
As for the Choice Band Gyarados, that was an error on my part, it should have been Leftovers/Life Orb, and as for Raikou as well that was meant to be a Choice Scarf (Again, stupid error on my part) and I'm getting my sets from this site. So I thought it would have been appropriate to post it here, as for my EV's and natures, sorry that I left those out, but they are as follows.

Gyarados:
Adamant
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

Tyranitar:
Adamant
180 HP / 252 Atk / 76 Spe

Mewtwo:
Timid
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

Scizor:
Adamant
248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe

Ho-Oh:
Adamant
232 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Spe

Raikou:
Rash
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

As for tiers, I'm thinking I would like to stick to UBRS without any restrictions, I feel that if I do that it gives me a lot more freedom on choice, but as you mentioned, my current set up would be underpowered.

As for what I should change etc, I'll take this over to the appropriate forum, as I don't want to further clutter the wrong section! I just didn't want you to feel like I wasn't going to read any more of this thread :)

Again, thanks very much for the help, I'll post a link to the new topic when I put it up for easy reference.